The Upstream approach to re-framing politics as a tool in the service of public health looks to me like the first monumentally cogent idea to come out of Saskatchewan since Tommy Douglas led the way to single-payer health care. Canada’s progress down the difficult but worthy path toward egalitarianism desperately needs this sort of refreshing perspective. The stakes are too high for political decisions to be informed by anything less than the best evidence available, and we can’t afford to let our choices to be guided by anything less than a clear commitment to tackle the inequality that poisons our society. I am tired of retreating from my political disappointments and I am tired of letting cynicism and pseudo-nihilism turn me into a lazy bystander. Put me to work on this.

nice to meet you so far. will look for you at the event this week in Toronto. 2015 has to be a year of re-framing the debate from war and surveillance (and law and order and the rest of it) to electing a national government that commits to national leadership on poverty, housing, childcare, aboriginal reconciliation, veteran’s rights, mental health and a strategy on homecare and community care where workers are paid what they’re worth and we can all trust we won’t be screwed by right-wing obsessions with the price of oil and law and order. let’s figure out how to take the country back to a place where we can recognize ourselves, and then keep on with the hard work of taking care of each other and building a new concept of health. Just like Tommy always said we would have to do. and of course also to keep on eye on the fight against austerity, and to act in solidarity always with the movements leading progressive change elsewhere in this fragile world. nice to meet you and cheers for now…